….never run of the milltrue loaf

The quarterly magazine for Real Bread Campaign membersIssue 8. July – September 2011

Win!A copy of

How to Make Bread by

Emmanuel Hadjiandreou

See inside for details

This issue’s letter comes from Michael Gopfert, who is working on ideas for starting to bake Real Bread for his local community in Merseyside.

I started with the dilemma of wanting to make more bread to develop my skills, but as we were only consuming one or two loaves a week at home this was hardly enough to keep my sourdough starter up to full vigour. My interest got intensified following my partial retirement from the NHS when I had the opportunity to work in a bakery in Munich for two weeks. As an aside: the word artisan does not mean very much there either! In February I asked my friends if they would make a 50p contribution per pound of dough if I made them some bread once a week.

Some said yes and since then I have made a different loaf each week, never repeating the same. We organised a sampling meeting with some Ethiopian food including injeera [a traditional sourdough flatbread made using flour from a grain called teff], sourdough bread, and some sourdough beer, which was great because people who did not know each other could talk with one another.

There was an agreement as to how we could move this forward without it becoming too big too fast. The idea is to develop skills in the group and see if the whole initiative can be broadened out. So there will be a rotating selection of four types of bread, one each week, a more realistic cost contribution and some joint bread making for those who are interested, and the hope that the two will eventually fertilise each other.

Meanwhile I am keen to develop my own skills but a mix of family and work (part time) commitments makes this very difficult. I have a wish to do some work with the Welbeck Bakehouse by working there for a week, but any other place that could accommodate me with that and has something interesting going will be interesting to consider for the future. I would want to contribute to the work and be helpful in exchange for some experience. I would not mind another course, though in general I am fed up with the courses and want to do the real work in a real bakery.

Simultaneously I am exploring whether I should put a slightly bigger micro-bakery in my garage. I am not sure yet how to do that financially but someone already asked the question whether we need to build a bread oven and I would not say no.

To contact Michael to chat about his plans or offer advice, please login to The Real Baker-e, our online members’ forum. Also there you can find notes of Michael’s bread club plans.

If you’d like to see your letter (no more than 300 words) published here, please send it to us by email or post by the next issue’s deadline. We can only publish one per issue but might instead choose to publish certain letters in the blog section of our website.

Credits Issue 8, July – September 2011True Loaf is the quarterly magazine of the Real Bread Campaign, part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Editor: Chris Young

Design: Becky Joynt

Contributors: Jonathan Cook, John Downes, Emily Earhart, Michael Gopfert, Angela Morris, Kelly Parsons and Andrew Whitley

Photos: Unless otherwise stated, all images by Chris Young/the Real Bread Campaign, available under a Creative Commons not-for-profit attribution share alike license.

Cover / inside cover: Patrycja Rejnin in Andy Forbes’ mixed-wheat-population-covered south London allotment last summer by

Vincent Talleu / Sacks, Miguel Saavedra, http://www.rgbstock.com/populargallery/saavem.

The Real Bread Campaign is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food scheme and the Sheepdrove Trust.

Printed by RAP Spiderweb with vegetable based inks on Print Speed paper, which has an FSC Mixed Sources accreditation.

Stay In touCh

You can share ideas and information, join in

with general Real Bread chit-chat and keep

up with the very latest related goings-on in

the following places out in the virtual world:

• The Real Baker-e: http://groups.yahoo.com/

group/realbreadcampaign/

• Follow @RealBread at twitter.com

• Become a fan (click ‘like’) of the Campaign

on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/

realbreadcampaign

• View and share pictures on Flickr

www.flickr.com/photos/realbreadcampaign/

For much more information about

Real Bread and the Campaign please visit:

www.realbreadcampaign.org

The Flour Sack

TAKE ACTION!If you are a professional baker and would like to offer Michael – or one of the many other would-be community/professional bakers on our waiting list – a voluntary apprenticeship, please email realbread@sustainweb.org for details of our scheme.

StarterIn a break from today’s marathon True Loaf editing session, I popped into a local shop and was greeted by a large purple and yellow (mmm… tasteful) banner across the top of The Daily Mail that yelled: ‘IS YOUR BREAD MAKING YOUR ILL?’ Aha, I thought, so today’s when they’re running the feature that freelance journalist Alex Renton offered to write as a result of one of our media releases. Cheers Alex!

This was not the first, nor will it be the last, fruit of our work to encourage the country to say that after half a century of the Chorleywood ‘Bread’ Process (CBP - the additive-laden, no-time system by which most factory loaves are made), it’s time Britain got real. BBC Breakfast broadcast the story three times in a morning, it appeared in Delicious magazine, and at the time of writing, Lucas Hollweg of The Sunday Times, Dan Lepard of The Guardian and Bee Wilson of The Daily Telegraph have all told us they’ll be telling of our mission. For the latest updates, keep an eye on Breadcrumbs, The Real Baker-e and our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Also on the horizon (future as I write, past as you read) is the launch of an initiative by Leicestershire brewer Everards to support Real Bread bakers, artisan cheese makers and other real food entrepreneurs in setting up businesses in pub outbuildings. Also in that temporal bubble is Bethesdabakin’, Mick Hartley and co’s annual Real Bread skills sharing weekend in Wales, which I’m sure will provide inspiration for other people to organise similar events elsewhere. We’ll be reporting back on both.

But to this issue, in which Emily Earhart looks at the history of CBP and a future beyond; Andrew Whitley shares with Kelly Parsons his calculations of how many Real Bread bakers we’d need to replace CBP; Angela Morris talks to Bread Hero Kenny Rankin, who’s committed to passing Real Bread skills to some of that next generation; and Jon Cook reports back from this spring’s grain chain building From Crop to Crust conference. Oh, we’re giving you the chance to win the new book from Campaign ambassador Emmanuel Hadjiandreou.

Ready for this and more? Then tuck in!

Contents

DisclaimerThe views expressed in True Loaf are those of the individual writers and not necessarily those of the Real Bread Campaign or Sustain. Inclusion of a product, service or organisation in the magazine does not imply an endorsement.

1

WANTED

For the information and entertainment of your fellow members. True Loaf wants your:• News stories• Photos • Bread and flour related features• CartoonsREWARD: a magazine that’s more about you and how you are helping the rise of Real Bread.APPLY: realbread@sustainweb.orgDeadline for issue 9 (October – December): 2 September 2011

Starter 01

The Bread Board 2 - 2

The Gallery 03

Pappiness in your hands 04

Loaf: thy neighbour 05

Bread Hero: Kenny Rankin 06

How many Real Bread bakers does it take to change a food system? 08

Competition 09

Sourdough...the real thing 10

Who are ya? 11

Millers’ Tales 12

Poster back cover

Project Officer, the Real Bread Campaign

Chris Young by Katharine Hillier

2

Bread making workshop and celebration of Real BreadFitting bread making into a busy daily routine; sourdoughs and yeasted bread (short and long process) the milling process; what goes into factory loaves; the story of setting up local bakeries; Community Supported Bakeries; secret Lammas rituals! All this and more will be explored on this 31st July event organised by Ipswich Food Co-op in support of the Real Bread Campaign. Confirmed speakers include: Nancy from Mains Restaurant Baking Club, Andy Cole from Felixstowe Craft Bakery, Tim Lukehurst from East Bergholt’s Slow Dough Bakery, David Eddershaw from Pakenham Watermill; plus members of the Food Co-op offering an informal skillshare, with more guests to be confirmed. For more details, contact Gemma Sayers gemma@sustainweb.org 07971 863 586

The WI Are you a member of your local Women’s Institute? If so, you are in the best position to help to get not only your group, but also your local federation and even the national organisation to champion Real Bread values and support our initiatives. As a start, if you have not done so already, please let your fellow members know about

the Campaign and encourage them to join us. Suggest to your own local group that they organise a bread-making workshop to share skills between members, or invite in a professional Real Bread baker if you’re lucky to have one locally. Another suggestion is that your group could help to arrange for Lessons in Loaf to be taught in a local school.

Abergavenny Food FestivalOver the weekend of 17th and 18th September, we’re teaming up with Earth Apple Bakery to run fun bread making workshops in the festival’s Food Academy area. Come and learn how easy it is to make interesting bread shapes and breadsticks. Elsewhere at the festival, Campaign ambassador Tom Herbert of Hobbs House Bakery will be running a one-off Real Bread workshop. www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com

Real Bread Finder If you know of a bakery that hasn’t taken up our invitation to add their Real Bread to our finder at www.realbreadcampaign.org, you can do your bit to help other people in your area by passing this on to the baker. Listing is free and the minimum requirement is simply that the loaf to be listed is made without the use of artificial additives.

Pappy BirthdayOur judging panel of chef Michel Roux Jr, master baker Tom Herbert; and artist and writer Jake Tilson chose the entry by Isaac Hickinbottom as the winner of our competition to design a card to say pappy birthday to the CBP loaf. He wins a Real Bread baker’s starter kit from Hobbs House Bakery. You can find the winning design on the back cover of this here magazine and other entries in the Campaign’s photostream at Flickr.com, a link to which we’ve posted in the news section of our own website.

Knead to Know If you’re one of more than 550 people who’ve bought a copy of our book – thank you. We’d love to read how you’re getting on, so please do drop a line in The Real Baker-e to share your ideas, plans and stories or to ask questions of your fellow members. Remember that our Bakers Angels are on hand there to chip in with their collective vast wealth of knowledge and experience. If you’d like to start baking for your local community, you can do a lot worse than grabbing a copy - as a Campaign member, you’ll get a 33% discount.

Real Breadmaker Week photo competitionCongratulations to Captain Barrie Sampson of the Salvation Army in Welwyn Garden City. His photograph of him and machine in action at the Silver Circle Club won him an American bread slicer from thecookshoponline.com and the full range of bread flours from Marriage’s.

Bethesdabasics Well done to Chris Naish, who’s correct answer that bara is the Welsh word for bread was the first out of the flour jar. He wins a copy of Mick Hartley’s first book.

Back Issues You can find PDFs of True Loaf in the members’ area of the website. We also have a limited number of paper copies of issues two to five, which you can order for £1 each plus p+p. Please email us if interested.

What are you up to? For a chance to share details of your Real Bread events here and in Breadcrumbs, PLEASE ADD IT TO OUR CALENDAR as far in advance as you can.

The Bread board

Events13th July: Bread and

ale evening, Topsham, Devon

16th July: Bread weighing, ale tasting and medieval fayre,

Ashburton, Devon

16th July: Brockwell Bake open day, south London

30th July: Community Bread Baking Day, Lovedays

Mead, Stroud,

Gloucestershire (also 27th August)

15th August: Local Loaves for Lam

mas, Nationwide

4th August: A Slice of real ale (beer and b

read tasting), Great

British Beer Festival, London

9th - 11th September: Bread trail, Ludlow Food Festiva

l, Shropshire

(Festival Loaf competition on 2

0th August)

24th September: The Eye Bread Festival, Leom

inster, Herefordshire

Full details on the events cale

ndar at www.realbreadcampaign.org

WIN!

A European baking

class at

The School of Artisan Food

Worth £150!

See inside for details

The quarterly magazine for Real Bread Campaign members

Issue 6. Winter/Spring 2011

…keeping it real from seed to sandwichtrue loaf true loaf

The quarterly magazine for Real Bread Campaign members

Issue 4 . Summer/Autumn 2010

FeaturingTom Herbert on shepherding the future of Real Bread

On course at the Lighthouse BakeryWhat is tradition?Scandinavian crispbreadThe many stories of bread ...and much more

…never dies

true loaf

The quarterly magazine for Real Bread Campaign membersIssue 5. Winter 2010

…the community issue….you just can’t fake it

true loaf

The quarterly magazine for Real Bread Campaign membersIssue 7. Spring/Summer 2011

WIN!

• ARealBreadbaker’sstarter

kitfromHobbsHouseBakery-

Worth £85!

• Abreadslicerfrom

CookshopOnline.comandsupply

offlourfromMarriage’s

• SourdoughbookBethesdabasics

See INSIde for detaIlS

TAKE ACTION!We need your pictures from Real Bread events and for our Get Real! gallery of questionable loaf marketing and long lists of utterly unnec-essary additives. Please email (hi-resolution but no more than 5mb in an email) to realbread@sustainweb.org with a note of what it is and the name of the photographer. By submitting a picture you confirm that the copyright holder gives permission for us to publish the image without payment in print, online or in any other media.

The GalleryPhotographs from Real Bread events over the past few months. You can find more pictures online in the Real Bread Campaign’s photostream on Flickr.

Do you have any photos from events that you’d like to share with fellow Campaign members? If so, please feel free to post them in The Real Baker-e or on our Facebook wall. If you’d like us to consider them for a future issue of True Loaf, please email them to realbread@sustainweb.org

Bake Your Lawn – all images courtesy of the schools or groups shown

Peatmoor Community Primary

Jack and Charlie Charlie growing at home Garnetbank Primary School

Constantine Primary School

Castle Climbing Club, LondonPeatmoor Community PrimaryPeatmoor Community Primary, Swindon

Garnetbank Primary School, Glasgow

Constantine Primary School, Cornwall Abbey Physic GardenAbbey Physic Community Garden, Kent

3

4

Pappiness in your hands

We are all familiar with the spongy, tasteless and additive-laden supermarket loaf, but how much do we know about the history behind Chorleywood ‘Bread’ Process (CBP), the industrial loaf making system that has reshaped bread in Britain over the past fifty years? A closer look at the social and historical origins of CBP can better equip us to change the future of bread in Britain.

War Child After World War II, the UK government joined forces with the baking sector to create the British Baking Industries Research Association (BBIRA) in the Hertfordshire village of Chorleywood, a partnership meant to strengthen and protect both the British baking industry and British wheat farmers. To compete with the increasing import of Canadian hard wheat in the 1950s, the BBIRA, led by Dr. George Elton, sought to increase English soft wheat’s oven spring while reducing production time. BBIRA’s studies resulted in a controlled energy batch mixing without bulk fermentation using a Morton Z blade mixer that required additional inputs: oxidising agents, emulsifiers, extra yeast, preservatives, and lots of water to adjust the consistency. This process also required large volumes of refrigerated water to cool down the dough, which had been heated by the energy intensive mixing. Thus in July 1961 the Chorleywood ‘Bread Process’, a high input, no time, energy intensive process was born.

While BBIRA’s research was intended to support and protect the baking industries, CBP, with all its input and equipment requirements, was a hard sell to bakers. It wasn’t until 1962 with Lord Rank, CEO of Hovis, that CBP gained its first commercial acceptance. Widespread commercial use of CBP was promoted and pushed by improver companies, which benefited from the added inputs of CBP in bread making. Within a decade, CBP became the standard commercial method of loaf production and today continues to be the method by which 80% of British ‘bread’ is produced. The predominance of CBP in Britain today is therefore the result of increasing industrialisation of the food industry post World War II and the market capitalist interests that accompanied this transition, reducing bread to a cheap, time efficient, energy intensive food source.

Value loaf vs. loaf valuesAs we face the future of bread in this country, we must ask, what do we value in bread? Is it the height or squishiness of a loaf as CBP marketers might have us believe? Is it the reduction of time and cost as BBIRA sought? Or is bread about embracing time, flavour, community, and craft? A future for bread in Britain that embraces these values and conserves resources is far more likely to protect and preserve the interests, health, and culture of the British people than improvers, emulsifiers, and preservatives.

Getting RealFortunately, there are already British bakers doing just that. Paul Barker, former employee of the Flour Milling and Baking Research Association in Chorleywood, runs Cinnamon Square Bakery in Rickmansworth and Ruislip, preserving the craft of long fermented loaves with his 27-hour Standard English bread and a 127-hour sourdough. Nicholas and Harris, a subsidiary of the Finsbury Food Group, is proving that additive-free baking and large scale production don’t have to be mutually exclusive terms. Based in Salisbury, Nicholas and Harris produce all-natural breads – including some long-fermented and even sourdough loaves - under the Vogel’s, Doves Farm, Village Bakery, and Cranks brands. Cinnamon Square and Nicholas and Harris are just two examples of the ever-growing number of bakers across Britain who are already providing viable alternatives to CBP.

As CBP turns fifty this July, let’s commemorate the milestone appropriately: not by celebration but by challenging its conversion of bread to a mere filling-carrying commodity. A future of better bread in Britain calls on us all to put the values of time, flavour, community, and craft back into bread. The Real Bread bakers who have listed their loaves on the Campaign’s Real Bread Finder are leading this reorientation of food values, proving that bread can sustain us beyond pappiness. Pappy Birthday Chorleywood.

Half a century after it was unleashed on an unsuspecting Britain, Campaign volunteer Emily Earhart looks at the history and future of the Chorleywood ‘Bread’ Process

CBP: past its use by date?

TAKE ACTION!Who do you think is the most deserving recipient of our pappy birthday card? We’ve turned the winning design into an e-card for you to send to people responsible for making and selling CBP loaves. you can find the e-card, instructions and a suggested contact list on our website, so please GEt SEnDInG!

5

Loaf: thy neighbour

Longer-serving members of the Campaign (and others amongst you) will know that 1st August is Lammas. Taking its name from the Old English for loaf mass, this ancient harvest festival’s traditional highlight was eating bread baked from flour milled from the year’s first grain. Though in modern times the wheat’s not usually started to come in by then (see John Letts’ article on our website for details), it’s still a great opportunity for everyone either to buy a loaf of locally-produced Real Bread, or roll up their sleeves to bake a loaf right at home.

Once again, many members of the SPAB Mills Section and of the Traditional Cornmillers Guild have told us they’ll be organising events and activities to share the delights of Real Bread made from traditionally-milled stoneground flour. As readers of the National Trust magazine will know from the four page National Crust feature we secured in their summer 2011 edition, this year a number of mills on Trust properties will also be joining in the fun on and around the Lammas weekend. We also have the support of Slow Food UK in asking their members to get involved.

Having said that wheat often hasn’t ripened by the beginning of August, in places where it has, we’re suggesting that traditional mills (and people with small, hand-turned stone mills) host community milling and baking days to allow kids who’ve been growing Bake Your Lawn wheat to complete their seed to sandwich Real Bread journeys.

Of course, hundreds of Real Bread bakeries around the country bake loaves for their local communities day in, day out, including some able to source and use locally milled flour from locally (or at least British) grown grain. Even so, we’ve encouraged all Real Bread bakers to consider offering something a bit different for Lammas, and have worked to get the media to help us to spread our message to the nation: buy a local loaf for Lammas!

TAKE ACTION!If you’re reading this before 1st august, either plan your Lammas activity (our Lammas pages should give you inspiration) and add it to the events calendar on our website, or check it to see what’s going on near you.

As well as bread making classes galore, Local Loaves for Lammas highlights over the past few years have included:

• Murray Edwards College in Cambridge baking loaves from wheat grown in college grounds.

• Little Salkeld watermill celebrating their barley bannock bake with the old English ballad of John Barleycorn.

• Denver Mill in Norfolk collecting wheat from a local organic farm in the morning, then milling it for a kids’ bread making class.

• Pinpastry in Exeter making loaves for local farmers’ markets using flour from Clyston Watermill, ale barm from Exe Valley Brewery, and honey from the Haldon Hills.

• The Loaf in Derbyshire baking a special Lammas loaf using flour milled at nearby Heage Windmill.

For the third year running, the Real Bread Campaign is calling on Real Bread bakers and traditional millers around the country to help the people of Britain to rediscover the taste of the real thing by baking or buying Local Loaves for Lammas.

6

Angela Morris chats to the head baker at Fifteen London, the

first of a family of restaurants established by Jamie Oliver to

offer apprenticeships to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Kenny draws upon over twenty years of

experience to train and mentor apprentices, whilst providing

the restaurant with a daily supply of high-quality Italian-

style bread.

Kenny Rankin

What’s it like working with the apprentices?Growing up I didn’t feel like I was much of an intellect, by that I mean I was more of a visual learner, so I can identify with the apprentices in that way. I’ve come to learn that each apprentice is different. I can remember each and every apprentice and their learning style. I’ve learnt the importance of getting them to a level where they believe in themselves, rather than feeling they’re defined by their past.

I’ve also learnt how to adapt my communication style to bring out the best in each apprentice. It’s important to set the boundaries and identify with the positives – if you start with the negatives then the point you’re trying to make has already been lost; for most of these apprentices, negativity is all they know so you’ve got to work hard at reversing their lack of self-belief. Then again, we’re preparing them for the real world, so it’s also important not to be over-positive; it’s a matter of striking the right balance.

The nights are quiet working in bakery so the apprentices get to learn team work, social skills and confidence; they learn that it’s okay to be ‘broken’ and let your guard down - they can move forward and not focus on where they’ve been but more where they’re going. I quite often see this working alongside them in bakery.

Taking a few steps back, how did you become a baker?I was really interested in baking, so when I was sixteen I began a three year bakery degree at Tameside College in Manchester. One of my big passions in life is travelling, and after I graduated I decided to work in Switzerland for three and a half years – they’re renowned for their baking confectionary, which is quite a skill to have under your belt. I worked for a restaurant group that produced all of the pastries for the Orient Express, so it was a fantastic experience. I did manage to drop a whole tray of pastries on the train tracks one day, though. That nearly got me fired!

Before you came to Fifteen London, you spent three and a half years as head baker at Fifteen Cornwall – what were the highlights for you? It was particularly interesting to observe some of the changes amongst the female apprentices at Fifteen Cornwall; you could slowly see them soften – their expressions become less hardened as they grew in confidence. Most importantly you could see them achieve what you’d taught them, which is hugely satisfying!

Once there were five apprentices there who were close to dropping out. Some of them were experiencing a bit of trouble in the main kitchen, where it’s fast-paced and a bit in-your-face, so bakery was a chance for them to have some time out. It gave them time to reflect on what’d been going on and slowly you could see them relax and open enough to talk it through. One of the five now works as a baker in Rick Stein’s restaurant in Padstow, so there is light at the end of the tunnel if they can just get over those hurdles.

What does Fifteen mean to you? Fifteen looks at the bigger picture and gives great freedom and scope in terms of what we can create. Baking is such a dying art and is one of the oldest and most important skills we can teach the apprentices. Of course, as bakers in an Italian restaurant we have to produce the classics that customers expect - such as focaccia and ciabatta - but we’re allowed the freedom to teach the apprentices so much more.

What’s next for you at Fifteen London? We’re working on a new kitchen space that’s solely for bakery, that way we’ll be able to control the room temperature so that it’s right for proofing bread, which is something that’s difficult when you’re making bread in a restaurant kitchen.

With a dedicated bakery we’ll be able to produce more varieties of bread and also to teach the apprentices a broader range of skills, particularly the bakery confectionary side. Alongside the bread we’ll be making our own croissants, Danish pastries, chocolate bread, brioche and puff pastry. Puff pastry is a particularly good skill for the apprentices to learn as it’s often overlooked.

And finally - what’s your favourite bread to make?I particularly like zopf, a Swiss style knotted bread that’s a bit like brioche. It’s an enriched dough, which means you can play with the variations of butter, sugar, milk or egg to alter the flavour. I also like the design element; with something like zopf you can make a number of shapes such as a rabbit, dove, turtle or swan. I’ve also learnt to braid up to eight strands in a plaited effect.

So you’re quite good with a braid? Not bad actually! I was a single dad for a number of years so I braided by daughter’s hair. When she got to eleven she asked me if it was okay for her sister to do her hair as she said I pulled too tight!

For more information about the Fifteen Foundation, visit www.fifteen.net

7

8

How many

The Middle Eastern ‘bread riots’ of recent times have, once again, confirmed the humble daily loaf as the embodiment of a nation’s food security. Whether as a response to soaring grain prices, or to panic buying incidents caused by delays to ‘just-in-time’ supermarket deliveries getting through (such as witnessed in the flooded Gloucester town of Tewkesbury in 2007), the case for building more resilience into our bread supply is undeniable.

More locally-dispersed wheat stocks, mills and bakers could far better withstand such political and environmental shocks; but what would we actually need to do to ensure everyone was within walking distance of a local loaf?

75,000 Real Bread bakers Well, for starters, of the twelve million or so loaves baked (though not necessarily all eaten) every day in the UK, three quarters are sold by supermarkets. Andrew Whitley says that an individual artisan baker can produce at most 200 loaves per day, so it would take 60,000 Real Bread bakers to match the current national loaf output. If we add in an extra twenty five per cent to our artisan baking army to cover days off for holidays and sickness, the number goes up to 75,000.

From his own experience at the Village Bakery, Andrew told me that the minimum number of bakers you need to sustain a small bakery is three; which means 25,000 bakeries each making around 480 loaves a day, or 3360 per seven-day week. By way of comparison, France, which obviously covers a considerably larger area geographically, currently has about

So, we’ve said that we want to see an end to CBP, but how many Real Bread bakers would we need to feed the entire nation once more? As Kelly Parsons finds out, Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley has done some sums and reckons the answer is around 75,000…

30,000 bakeries. Is this level of productivity realistic? Well, prior to its recent move to larger premises, The Handmade Bakery was pushing out around 1200 loaves a week with a tiny amount of space and relatively basic equipment. As this output was from six part-time bakers doing a total of eleven shifts over just five days per week, the target of 3360 loaves is by no means an impossible one.

More jobs per loafAs well as improving our food security these local bakeries would also create many more jobs per loaf than the current system. If fewer than one in thirty of the 2.43 million people unemployed (figures to April 2011) and claiming benefit were to train as an artisan baker we would have 75,000 bakers spread across the community. Andrew believes that the other important impact of a local bakery system would almost certainly be in reducing waste. With most bread made fresh and on the doorstep, he feels that there is a good chance that far less would be wasted, reducing the overall number of loaves needing to be made. According to WRAP, the government-linked Waste and Resources Action Programme, each year we throw away 2.6 billion individual slices and a further 69 million whole loaves, plus rolls, croissants, crumpets, and other bready goods worth a total of just under half a billion pounds. What’s more, fresh bread within walking distance means no need for any of the shelf-life-extending enzyme adulterants that are currently used in most British industrial loaves - though not, of course, declared on the label.

Let’s be clear that the initial cost of such a Real Bread takeover would be considerable. Based on Andrew’s calculations, kitting out a small bakery to high professional specification with two wood-fired ovens and other equipment can cost up to £50,000, and allowing for an average of £50,000 for refurbishment of premises and some working capital, it could mean £100,000 to set up each of our 25,000 bakeries: £2.5bn.

Real Bread bakers does it take to change a food system?

Real Bread bakers to change a food system?

Investment in the wellbeing of the nation But let’s put that long-term investment figure in perspective: it’s only just over a third of one percent of the government’s ‘total managed expenditure’ (£710bn) for 2011-12, or we could look at it as being around only £33,000 per baker job created, which is less than a third of the average bonus (£104,839 – that’s on top of the basic salary) of a Barclays Capital employee this year – and that company’s total bonus pot of £2.6bn could have more than paid for the whole takeover. Balance this against how it could drastically save on benefit payments; and be an important investment in the nutritional, social and political wellbeing of the nation.

And, of course not everyone on a mission to expand the alternative food system sets off with an all-singing, all-dancing three-person bakery. There are plenty of people with big ideas but small budgets who have already begun baking Real Bread for their local communities from kitchen tables. To supplement an existing domestic baking set up to increase your once-weekly bake of one or two loaves to say a dozen or twenty in order to start a small bread club for neighbours could take an initial investment of under a hundred pounds. Now that’s not a lot of dough to invest in the rise of Real Bread!

Kelly Parsons is the deputy editor of The Jellied Eel, London’s magazine for ethical eating, published by Sustain’s London Food link. Andrew Whitley sits on the Campaign’s working party and runs Bread Matters.www.thejelliedeel.orgwww.breadmatters.com

Imag

e fr

om

ww

w.a

nd

yth

orn

ton

.co

m

Campaign ambassador Emmanuel Hadjiandreou has certainly earned his stripes, with over twenty five years’ experience in professional bakeries around the world. Currently passing on some of his skills at the School of Artisan Food, Emmanuel has also taken advantage of his move away from nocturnal working to sit down and put just some of his wealth of knowledge down on paper.

The result is How to Make Bread, which is published in September by Ryland Peters and Small. Illustrated with more than 350 photographs, the book takes the home baker step-by-step through breads from a basic white loaf, to bagels, stollen, and sourdough.

WinFor your chance to win a copy of the book, email a photograph of yourself reading True Loaf to realbread@sustainweb.org. We’ll post entries on our Flickr stream and pick our favourite to win the prize.

Competition

TAKE ACTION!If you’re interested in baking Real Bread for friends, neighbours or your wider local community, take a look at the home baking and bakers’ support sections of our website. We have published a more detailed introduction to baking Real Bread for your local community as Knead To Know: the Real Bread starter, available through our website and a number of selected stockists.

9

Sourdough bread. . .the real thing

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of sourdough bread is that it is nothing special at all really: it’s the way most leavened bread has always been made, but has simply been lost in the race for the new. The present culinary zeitgeist is a curious mix of the future/modern and the archaic, allowing sourdough bread to reveal itself again as the ‘bottom line’ of all food: the way to eat and digest the cereal grains that are perhaps a key signifier of human culture. Bread has been made this way since the first mix of flour and water was left, probably accidentally, for longer than usual, and is still the common method outside the industrialised world. Whereas

Chorleywood ‘bread’ is a simulacrum, sourdough

is the real thing.

Going wildSourdough bread is leavened by populations of natural (sometimes called wild) yeasts and bacteria. In modern bread making, this symbiotic combination is replaced by a purified strain of just one yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The leavening agents are elemental in that they are found floating in the atmosphere as well as adhering in higher concentrations to the surface of the grain itself. It is easy to cultivate these elementals simply by mixing wholemeal wheat or rye flour and water and leaving this batter to ferment naturally without any human interference apart from perhaps occasional stirring, although this isn’t even essential. Within days the batter is usually showing the classic signs of fermentation: bubbling and frothing with clear biological activity. This batter can then simply be mixed

with more flour, water and salt (also an elemental), then allowed to

continue activating, and finally baked to produce a very

delicious well-risen bread.

Not yeast-free Sourdough bread has many other interesting aspects from the aesthetic to the nutritional. Made skilfully and baked in a wood-fired oven it is arguably the most difficult of the culinary arts, the most fundamental, and perhaps produces the most visceral associations from aroma to digestibility. Sourdough bread is not yeast-free as often stated. It is simply free from the refined mono-cultured yeast that leavens modern breads. The leavening in a sourdough is caused by both the varying poly-culture of wild yeasts and lactobacilli, or lactic acid bacteria. These actually partially pre-digest the grain matrix, which some studies (and many people on the street) have concluded renders it highly digestible, and makes the nutrients within the cereal more bio-available [converted to a form that the human body can assimilate], which means it goes down well and is very nourishing.

Nutrients are also synthesised within the sourdough process, the bread being more nutritious than its original components. For example vitamin B12 (not its analogue) has been found in good quantity in my leavens, and this is unknown in regular breads. The essential amino acid [i.e. necessary but the human body is unable to synthesise it] lysine is also formed, which is also exceptional as this is not found in unfermented cereals. Organic acids and alcohol develop during the fermentation, considerably modifying the glutenin and gliadin [the proteins that combine to form gluten], thus rendering them more digestible. There is even evidence that some coeliacs might be able to eat properly made sourdough wheat bread, and that diabetics might benefit from it*. As I believe many of the self-diagnosed food allergic/intolerant are in fact suffering from modernitis, this underlines the role of sourdough in nutrition/well-being.

Evidence

It is fortunate that we have rediscovered this process, as I and many other believe we ail from the refined breads that now dominate our food choices. Forced on us by corporate thinking as a way for them to make money rather than to nourish us (were there mass demonstrations demanding CBP loaves? History records the opposite, actually), modern ersatz ‘bread’ has pervaded our culture. In a recent article on the BBC News website,

Earlier this year John Downes, ‘the acknowledged father of the modern sourdough bread movement in Australia’ moved to the UK. Well, how could we not ask him to share some of his knowledge? Happily, he said yes.

Image: www.flickr.com/people/stone-soup/10

11

Gordon Polson of the Federation of Bakers is quoted as saying that there is no evidence that modern (CBP) loaves are any harder to digest.

This leads us to another interesting aspect of the re-appearance of sourdough. Through the blessed medium of social networking, which relieves us from the tyranny of scientism, those of us who have started baking and eating sourdough bread have found that we are not alone in experiencing a magical reversal of digestive complaints. At which point does the in vivo evidence outweigh the in vitro? As a sourdough baker of forty years’ experience, I’ve met very many people discovering sourdough bread, then coming back to me to announce a sudden remission from all sorts of digestive maladies, which then return if they revert to industrial loaves. This relief can sometimes occur to a lesser extent with properly made yeasted bread, however I have found that sourdough is more fundamentally curative.

Sourdough bread was once commonly made in Britain in many forms. As its crafting is the antithesis of an industrial process, sourdough vanished here within the first days of the industrialisation of culinary life. Sourdough bread requires a skilled person (an artisan) as opposed to an ‘operative’ and is the original Luddite, resisting the machine. Although Ruskin and his contemporaries railed against the demise of the artisan, they were curiously silent about the food artisans. The process survived on the continent, notably in France where such bread retained its title of pain au levain. This levain is the leaven that, as I’ve described, can be generated spontaneously and cultured by anyone. To achieve excellence, however, sourdough needs to be managed skilfully by the artisan baker...

Earlier this year, we asked you to complete a short questionnaire to help us answer the questions – just who are the Real Bread Campaign? Well, according to the results, the average Campaign member is female, aged between 41 and 60, works full-time and is a home baker.

So that we can understand and better serve our current members, as well as focus our drive to attract more people to join you, we devised a mini-census. In response, we received 125 completed questionnaires, a representative sample of roughly one fifth of our membership at the time. With thanks to you if you replied (and

even bigger thanks to our volunteer Emily who waded through and logged the results), here are the key things we have learned about the gang…

71% of members are female, 31% are between 41 and 50 and just under 30% are 51-60. By far the largest proportion of you are homebakers, accounting for 67% of respondents. Around 10% each are either professional bakers or people baking at home for sale.

The biggest reason for you joining is because you’re a homebaker, with wanting to help to change the baking industry and delivering the aims of the Campaign almost tying as second and third of your reasons. The top three

things you want to see more of are campaigning on relevant legislation, pressing for more health/nutrition research, and training events.

The way you prefer to read Campaign news is in True Loaf [‘go the Loaf!’ ed.], Breadcrumbs and The Real-Baker-e, in that order. Facebook and Twitter also received good numbers of votes.

Well, now we know, we’ll see what we can do!

You can read more details of the results in the membership section of our website.

In the next issue, John will give us an introductory guide to the first steps towards excellence in sourdough baking. In the meantime, you can read John’s writing in the Baker’s Blog at shiptonmill.com and his frequent blog posts at sourdough.com.

* You can find links to the growing body of scientific evidence in the FAQs section of our website. If you know of a study we’ve not yet listed, please email the details to realbread@sustainweb.org

John Downes (right) sharing a loaf with John Letts

Who are ya?

TAKE ACTION!If you’re marketing sourdough bread as ‘yeast free’, stop it! apart from the fact that this could land you in trouble with trading Standards, it’s not in keeping with Real Bread Campaign values of openness and honesty. Possible alternatives include ‘made without baker’s [or industrial] yeast’, and ‘made using naturally-occurring yeasts’.

Millers’ Tales

Against the backdrop of the continuing surge in interest in Real Bread and bread making, the conference was convened to explore the relationships that need to exist between farmer, traditional miller and baker to support the continued renaissance of good, quality bread. Jointly organised by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) Mills Section and the Traditional Cornmillers Guild (TCMG), the conference proposed that Britain’s traditional mills are in a pivotal position to help change rural life and the quality and value of our most essential staple food: Real Bread.

Expert riskTo achieve the aim, an excellent line-up of speakers was assembled. Farmer Howard Roberts and John Letts, archeo-botanist, farmer and founder of the Oxford Bread Group, presented The Farmer’s Tale, a workshop focusing on growing wheat for traditional milling. Howard farms a mixed arable organic farm in Hertfordshire and supplies most of his wheat to traditional mills including the neighbouring Redbournbury Watermill. He described the benefits of provenance, how being connected with mills and bakers enabling the consumer to trace their bread back to the farm gate has helped his business. John shed light on the huge opportunities that exist in growing heritage wheat varieties, from the qualities of the flour they produce to their suitability to the ever-changing UK climate. He also reflected on the legal challenges of growing and trading these varieties of wheat given UK and EU legislation.

No trouble at t’millSPAB Mills Section chairman James Waterfield and TCMG chairman Nick Jones presented The Miller’s Tale. James showcased the process he uses at Maud Foster Windmill in Lincolnshire to make white flour using stoneground meal and a centrifugal dresser, demonstrating how he achieves a white colouration along with some great flavour. To illustrate the fundamental enduring qualities of stoneground traditional milling – using natural power to produce a staple, quality food, Nick took delegates on a journey into a future world where due to natural disaster, there was no electrical power. He eloquently reminded us all how these qualities are as relevant to today’s world of climate change and energy insecurity as they were to the pre-industrial society that developed most of the wind and water milling technologies found in our traditional mills today

Changing tastesAward winning baker, teacher and author Dan Lepard and Little Salkeld mill’s Ana Jones presented The Baker’s Tale. Ana, focusing on domestic baking, did a practical demonstration making rolls to highlight how simple and easy Real Bread making can be. She also illustrated some of the qualities of English wholewheat flour, including the fact it needs very little kneading to produce a light crumb. Dan talked about the changing tastes of an increasing number of consumers and bakers and the opportunities this affords traditional millers. They, he told the audience, can provide greater variety of flavour in their flour due to the qualities of the

As Campaign working party member Jon Cook reports, over 110 bakers, millers and farmers gathered on a stunning spring day at the NFU Mutual headquarters at Tiddington, Stratford upon Avon for a journey From Crop to Crust.

12

13

different parcels of wheat milled, and offer a greater range of types of flour. He made the important point that poor quality flour gives both the mill concerned and the wider traditional milling industry a bad name and that some traditional millers need to develop a greater understanding of how their product is used by bakers.

Dan encouraged bakers to work with millers to select a type of flour suitable for the bread they planned to make. He also suggested that bakers explore the properties of flours from traditional mills by firstly hydrating a sample and exploring how the flour reacts – how it takes up water and how the gluten develops. From this, they should consider ‘cutting their coats according to the cloth’ i.e. using these properties to decide what type of bread to bake, rather than trying to force a flour to produce a predetermined loaf for which it isn’t suited.

After a presentation by heritage interpretation specialist Geraldine Mathieson exploring the impact of the changing tastes of the consumer as regards the bread they eat, Chris Young charted the evolution of the Real Bread Campaign, which has been working closely with both the TCMG and the SPAB Mills Section since its launch. The Campaign’s success in gaining media interest has helped raise awareness of the role of traditional mills, the difference between stoneground and roller milled flours, and the benefits of baking and eating Real Bread of course!

Traditional mills in the 21st century The last set of presentations of the day showcased two watermills at the heart of their local communities, but at different stages of business development. Justin James of Redbournbury Watermill gave us an insight into the phenomenal successes achieved at this established watermill which mills wheat from local farmer Howard Roberts and has an onsite bakery used by both a bread baker and a cake maker. Redbournbury personifies what can be achieved by a traditional mill in the 21st century, creating a mutually beneficial commercial relationship between the baker, miller and farmer and combining this with a local enthusiastic following of committed customers. By contrast, Lionel Green’s Crakehall Mill is just completing a restoration programme, which at its conclusion will see it milling flour for a local Community Supported Bakery made from local wheat. Delegates were therefore able to hear the contrasting stories of these different mills, their successes and challenges.

Alongside the presentations, delegates were able to explore the marketplace

of stalls and exhibitions where millers, bakers and representatives from organisations including the TCMG, SPAB Mills Section, Real Bread Campaign, NFU Mutual, National Trust, the Mills Archive and Bakerybits Ltd were ready to network, sell their wares and discuss baking and milling. Emmanuel Hadjiandreou and students from the School of Artisan Food, ably supported by Andy Forbes of the Brockwell Bake and Dilly Boase, baked bread made with flour from TCMG mills in an oven kindly loaned by Paul Jones of Melton Mowbray.

Many new acquaintances were made, building new personal and business relationships all along the food chain from crop to crust, affirming the place and role of the traditional mill in the 21st Century and thus the aim of the conference.

Jon Cook owns and runs the wind-powered Fosters Mill at Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire, is the secretary of the Traditional Cornmillers Guild, and vice-chair of SPAB Mills Section.

www.tcmg.org.uk www.spab.org.uk/spab-mills/

TAKE ACTION!Support sustainable milling by seeking out flour from a traditional wind- or water-powered mill. Real Bread baked from locally-grown and milled grain gives professional bakers a strong uSP, as well as offering them and home bakers darn tasty loaves. tCMG and the Brockwell Bake both have traditional mill finders on their websites and recently we began to offer independent millers the chance to add their flours (and where to buy them) to our Real Bread Finder.

www.realbreadcampaign.org